Final Stand of a Fallen Sister
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: The last stand of the bright star of the family.


Final Stand of a Fallen Sister.  
  
Late at night Andromeda Tonks arrived home from her weekly shop. She would have arrived back earlier but she was expecting her daughter for dinner at the weekends and she remembered, with a smile, that Nymphadora always ate everything she had a chance to.  
  
She turned up her road and noticed that the lights were on in her front room, she had expected her husband to have gone to bed by now, but she was not really complaining. She and Ted never got enough time together anymore.  
  
She opened her front door and was astounded at the lack of noise. Usually when Ted was home he insisted on watching that muggle box he needed electricity to run. She smiled. Ted had his eccentricities, usually ones that she needed about three explanations to understand, but Andromeda knew that she would love him no matter what.  
  
She stepped into the front room trying to surprise her husband and saw him sitting on the over stuffed armchair with his back to her.  
  
"Ted..."  
  
She sat slowly on his lap with a sultry smile on her face and looked deep into his eyes, only to discover that they were empty. She felt his arm by her side and realised that it was ice-cold. She lifted her fingers to his neck to feel for a pulse and felt nothing.  
  
He was dead. She couldn't believe it, that very morning he had been his usual cheery, healthy self. He couldn't have just died of natural causes in the space of twelve hours. The look on his face was surprised. He must have been murdered by someone.  
  
Must have been a wizard...no scars. Or at least no visible scars she thought with a shudder.  
  
Why the hell would a wizard... do this to another of our kind.? And who.?  
  
And then it hit her.Voldemort. Dumbledore had been saying all last year that he was back and she was ashamed to say she hadn't believed him. Then the article in the Prophet had appeared and she had grudgingly accepted the story and realised, with a fear unlike any she had ever felt, that her daughter would be expected to fight him.  
  
And now to top it all off her husband was dead. She should have known who it was though, if she had realised her own life could have been saved.  
  
"Ever since the first day I saw that Mudblood I prayed that I would be present when he died. And then when Potter stopped the Dark Lord I feared I would not get my wish. But now..."  
  
Andromeda turned slowly and looked into the icy-blue and empty eyes of her younger sister Narcissa Malfoy. Next to her was Rodolphus Lestrange. He had a particular smirk on his face that told Andromeda it was he who had killed Ted.  
  
Her blood began to boil as she realised that Bellatrix did not even have the nerve to be present, for she knew she would soon be dead, but Bella was not brave enough to be here for the murder.  
  
"Bellatrix couldn't make it. My lovely wife is performing the joyous task of killing your other sister. Then there will be no remaining Blacks. It is a shame isn't it.?"  
  
So Bella was currently killing Constance, with Lucius in tow no doubt. He was another one of the old gang. She was surprised Rodolphus was here, but he had been a few years older than them.  
  
She knew Bellatrix, for all her evil deeds and considering how black her heart had become, she knew her sister, and she knew Bella could not stand to see her die.  
  
She and Bella had been close growing up and when she had left she knew that her sister would be devastated. Bella had been fiercely protective of her family and Andromeda suspected that Lucius was there to kill Constance when Bella got cold feet.  
  
She had heard about Sirius and knew that although Bella had hated her cousin, she loved her sisters.  
  
Which brought her back to Narcissa, standing tall in her favourite green robes, her hair perfect and her wand held with an elegant hand.  
  
An elegant hand that was shaking dramatically.  
  
In the brief moment Rodolphus took to calm Narcissa, Andromeda drew her own wand and cast the curse she never thought she would against Lestrange. In truth she hadn't expected it to work, but it did and he hit the floor next to her coffee table with a loud thump.  
  
Narcissa looked dumbfounded, her usual cool as ice demeanor was quickly melting away. Then they looked at each others wand.  
  
They were in a stalemate.  
  
"Narcissa, we don't have to do this."  
  
"Yes we do. My master said you had to die."  
  
"You don't have to follow him. He is not all powerful."  
  
"Yes he is.!"  
  
Narcissa's wand exploded with sparks, but none of them hit her. Yet.  
  
"Cissa. I don't want to fight my sister. Can we please just talk...rationally.?"  
  
"Bella will not be pleased you killed her husband."  
  
"She couldn't care less. Please Cissa, look I'll put my wand away."  
  
And she did. She placed it in the waistband of her skirt. It was her fatal mistake.  
  
"Andromeda. I love you. And I'm so sorry...Avada Kedavra.!"  
  
And Andromeda fell to the floor with the same look of shock on her face as her husband.  
  
And Narcissa knelt next to her sister and wept, knowing that miles away Bella would be doing the same with the youngest Black. 


End file.
